


Mary, Claire de Lune, and the Crescent Moon

by DonnesCafe



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Gen, Mary Morstan and the Virgin Mary, Religion, Religious Imagery & Symbolism, Sherlock Meta, William Blake - Freeform, Woman Clothed with the Sun
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-30
Updated: 2014-05-30
Packaged: 2018-01-27 15:37:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 785
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1715771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DonnesCafe/pseuds/DonnesCafe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some thoughts on Mary Morstan, the iconography of the Virgin Mary, and the crescent moon all supporting the possibility that Mary may be on the side of the angels.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mary, Claire de Lune, and the Crescent Moon

Fascinating post about Mary and the perfume Claire de Lune by skulls-and-tea here

In response, some thoughts - sort of a micro-meta. Other people have talked about the parallels with Mary Morstan and the Virgin Mary, of course, as well as all the other biblical names in _BBC Sherlock_. So someone may have done the Mary/moon thing already, but just in case…

The crescent moon has long been part of the iconography for the Virgin Mary. The crescent moon symbolizes the feminine, especially the fertility associated with the menstrual cycles (tied to the waxing and waning of the moon).

The particular use of the crescent moon in pictures of the Virgin Mary has ties to pagan goddesses like Artemis. Artemis has many symbols, and one of them is the crescent moon. It is often depicted, when associated with Artemis, as her bow (linked to her role as huntress). So possible link to Mary as assassin/huntress?

Artemis assisted Hera with the birth of her twin brother Apollo. Because of this, Artemis was sometimes seen as a protector of babies and pregnant women, and women would pray to her for a good outcome to their pregnancies. There may be a link here to the obvious concerns/fears Mary seemed to have about her pregnancy in SoT, as well as a foreshadowing of threats to her and/or the baby still to come. 

Many of the paintings of the Virgin Mary show her with the crescent moon under her feet and the sun over or behind her (reference not only to apocalyptic verses from the Bible but to moon/sun:Artemis/Apollo). See, for instance, this water color by William Blake, “The Woman Clothed with the Sun”. It is part of Blake’s watercolor series for the Book of Revelation, the “Great Red Dragon Paintings” series. Good/evil, light/dark, you get the gist. It’s one of my favorite of Blake’s works - hanging behind me in my study right now.

 It illustrates Revelation 12:1, 2: “I saw a great sign - A woman clothed with the sun, the moon beneath her feet, and a crown of twelve stars around her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth....” Revelation's woman is (among other things) _ecclesia_ , the church, the mother of all the righteous who are threatened by the great Dragon, Satan, in the end-time. Whether as church or Virgin, the ‘crescent moon’ woman has always been associated with the apocalypse.

As Virgin of Guadalupe, Mary is sometimes shown both standing on the crescent and on a serpent. That serpent (and the ‘dragon’ of Blake) are the dark energies, devil (although that’s a whole book where Blake is concerned), dark, erotic, the feathered serpent. So I’m thinking now, of course, of Moriarty as snake, his apple and his I.O.U. God addresses the serpent in Genesis 3:15 and says, “I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel." Similar imagery is used in Psalms 91:9: "Because you have made the Lord your refuge, the Most High your habitation, no evil shall befall you, no scourge come near your tent. For he will give his angels charge of you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone. You will tread on the lion and the adder, the young lion and the serpent you will trample under foot." 

If this symbolic association linking Mary Morstan and the Virgin Mary through the specific symbol of the crescent moon plays out, it would argue for Mary being “on the side of the angels." She would be positioned as "innocent" (i.e. really trying to turn over a new leaf and separate herself from her past... not Moriarty's agent currently) and an enemy of Moriarty-as-serpent. The other woman in S3 who uses Claire de Lune is, of course, Lady Smallwood. Perhaps she and Mary are positioned as (relatively) innocent victims, menaced by evil, enemies of Moriarty, taken under Sherlock's wing, and on the side of the "angels" (Sherlock/Mycroft). I know there’s a lot of evidence on both sides of the Mary argument, but this one small bit of evidence intrigues me.

 

So just off the top of my head, the use of the perfume with the distinctive crescent moon bottle may be associated with Mary’s pregnancy, Sherlock’s protectiveness of her and her pregnancy, and apocalypse/death/sacrifice to come. 

Because we all know some serious shit is going to hit the fan in seasons 4 and 5. 


End file.
